About the Author

Eileen Duggan (1894-1972) was New Zealand's best known poet while she was writing and publishing - for many years her reputation outside New Zealand exceeded that of any other New Zealand poet - but today her work is largely out of print.

Helen J. O'Neill (Sister Leonie) was born of Irish parents in Cromwell, New Zealand. She graduated from Christchurch Teacher's College in 1949 and entered the Sisters of Mercy as a novice in 1951. A secondary school teacher until 1973, she earned a BA in English in 1963. Her PhD thesis was published as Once Preferred, Now Peripheral: Poetry and Pedagogy: The Place of Poetry in the Teaching of English for Years 9, 10 and 11 Students in 2006.